About the Poet

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Racism vs. racism: Racial pride vs. Radicalization of Racial pride

Racism is simply the idea that
one’s race is better than any other race. This is a natural perception,
assumption or feeling about one’s race. Taking it in itself by itself, it’s
benign. We all believe that there’s something special about ourselves or our
race. This is a natural feeling about one’s self no one should be denied. We
all can express it all we want.

Europeans can pride in who they
are and Africans can pride in who they are.

If pride in one’s race isn’t the problem then what’s the problem?

While a simple pride in one’s
race is acceptable, the application of that pride in one’s race is what we need
to keep our eyes on. Some people believe that their race is the best and stop
from there…they don’t go any farther. Others believe their race is the best but take
it a little farther. They either flaunt the success of their race with flamboyant
arrogance or they use that pride to make sure that others feel bad about their race.
In a word, they use the pride in their race as an instrument to not only pride
in their race, but to make sure that other races are not only put down, but
that the conceptual distance between themselves and other Races is greatly
increased.

One might feel bad or sad when
put down through racial pride but that’s not the evil of racism. That’s more
about one’s emotional strength then it’s about any truth about races.

But that still, by itself is not the
problem!

So being proud of your race (even
with excessive edge) is not the problem. And using that pride in one’s race to
put others down, while bad, isn’t the major problem in what we consider the evil of ‘Racism.’

So what’s the problem with race
and Racism?

A feeling about one’s self is
innate. It’s not something you create! While it might be enhanced by some
factors within one’s social environment, one’s general feeling about oneself is
natural. So one’s feeling about one’s race is a bigger version of one’s feeling
about one’s race.

Feeling about one’s self à pride in one’s family à pride in one’s collective
group à pride in one’s race

This is simply a natural
progression and there’s nothing wrong or unnatural about it.

Here’s where the problem lies
when it comes to racism.

There are effectivizing factors that
play into racism to make it either effective or affecting. These are the
instrumentalizing issues I call Instigating Factors. And these are the factors
that determine the evils that originate from racism.

Some of these factors are

-Hatred

-Power

-Wealth

-Bigotry (religious or otherwise)

-Poverty

When these IFs play into racism,
racism becomes detrimental to both parties. When hatred plays into pride in one’s
race, then it becomes destructive to everyone. When Power or Wealth is used by
those who possess it against people of a different race then a problem is
created.

Unless you have the above IFs,
then a simple pride in one’s race isn’t the problem. When a simple pride in one’s race (racism) is
radicalized through the application of IFs then it becomes Racism.

ðRacism + IFs = Racism.

So Racism is the radical application of racism.

We tend to lump everything up as
bad without any critical analysis. What’s bad in being proud of one’s race or
tribe or any social group? There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that! What’s
questionable or even wrong is the radicalization of that pride through the
application of IFs. This is what affects others and the very person applying
the IFs.

When a ‘white person’ expresses his/her
pride in his/her race, we have to remember that his feelings are absolutely
natural and acceptable. What we have to note; however, is the possible
radicalization of his natural feelings through the use of IFs. The latter is
the evil of
Racism we talk about.

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ANGELINA & ADUT ( A Novel)

Leadership, given what is happening now in South Sudan, and generally in Africa, fascinates me. And it fascinates me not in a good way but because of the sociopolitical and socioeconomic ills facing the African continent and most of the so-called 'Third World.' To me, South Sudan, now, is a classic case.Rebellion by disaffected politico-military leaders and repression by the government of South Sudan in Juba have stunted institutional development and leadership growth. This has made service provision almost irrelevant as political survival has taken primacy and supremacy. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE

‘Black’ as an Identity Oversimplification and Mockery

Black as a universalized cultural identity of the African Person (AP)* is a residual effect of slave and colonial mentality; a racial/race paradigm. It is a malady I call, conservatively speaking, stuck-in-the-past syndrome of color constraints. Black could be an on-the-street ‘social identifier’ of race figures not a meaningful phenomenon of deep cultural identification on a universal scale.

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The questionnaire below is for the book I'm writing on leadership and the factors behind the South Sudanese conflict. I would want to know from South Sudanese and other interested parties what they think.

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SELF-ESTEEM AND DISCRIMINATION

As someone who grew up in war conditions and lived as a refugee for a long time, I'm sometimes considered by many people in the 'west' to be prone to (or have) low self-esteem, be poor or illiterate. Living as refugees or displaced persons, who depended on the good will of others put people in a situation where they don't think much about themselves. But that's not everyone though.

As I stood by our front desk at my place work talking about Race and Identity in relation to my book, Is 'Black' Really Beautiful?, the issue of why many African peoples in North America become so over-sensitive when racial issues come up! For many rational people, this owes its origin to slavery and racial segregation.

But one of my coworkers, a person of European descent, was surprised to realize that her 'black' friend, a very intelligent woman, easily becomes irritated by simple things she [friend] considers racist. The friend considers any mention of a watermelon racist; and complains a lot about 'whiteprivilege.' This means that discrimination is considered something 'whites' don't face because of 'white privilege.' In any discussion between 'blacks' and 'whites', 'white privilege' issue comes up!

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